The use of the Internet has become such an important part of daily life that travelers like to be able to access the Internet when they are traveling. Typically, a person accesses the Internet through a company referred to as an Internet Service Provider (ISP). The user establishes an account with their home ISP and can then access the Internet by connecting to the ISP's Internet access system using a modem. The ISP bills the user for this service at some regular interval.
A problem encountered by travelers is that when they are traveling, connecting to their home ISP frequently means placing a long distance call. Such a call is not only expensive, but it fails to take advantage of the benefits of the Internet. Frequently, regardless of where the traveler is traveling, there are local ISP's in the area. However, in the past, since the traveler did not have an account with these ISP's, he or she could not log on to the Internet through these local ISP's. Recently, techniques have become available for allowing a traveler to use the system of a local ISP to connect to the Internet, even though the user does not have an account with the local ISP (this is referred to as Internet roaming). However, what is needed is a convenient system for allowing the fees incurred in this roaming process to be tracked and reported to the appropriate parties.